Southern California -- this just in

Former SEIU union local president convicted of embezzlement

The former president of California’s
largest union local was found guilty by a federal jury in Los Angeles on Monday of stealing from the
low-wage workers he represented.

Tyrone Freeman, who led Local 6434 of the
Service Employees International Union, was convicted on 14 criminal counts,
including embezzlement of union funds, violating tax laws and mail fraud.

As president of SEIU Local 6434 -- the
second-largest SEIU chapter in the nation -- Freeman, 43, represented 160,000 low-wage
healthcare workers who cared for the elderly and people with disabilities. He also
represented 30,000 workers as president of the California United Homecare
Workers.

Prosecutors accused Freeman of billing the
union for “elaborate personal expenses,” including more than $8,000 in costs
related to his 2006 wedding in Honolulu, according to court documents.

Freeman ostensibly was marrying Pilar
Planells, his executive assistant at the union local. But at the time of the
wedding, he was still married to his first wife, according to a trial
memorandum filed by the prosecution earlier this month.

Planells pleaded guilty earlier this year
to an income tax charge in connection with more than $540,000 she received in
consulting payments from the union.

The charges against Freeman grew out of a series of Times
reports regarding Freeman’s financial dealings while leading SEIU Local 6434. The
Times reported that Freeman funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars of
members’ union dues and money from an affiliated charity to his relatives.

Freeman stepped down from his job in 2008, shortly after The Times' report.